Georgia wide receiver Demetris Robertson (16) during the 2021 G-Day Game on Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga., on Saturday, April 17, 2021. (photo by Rob Davis)
Now that Georgia’s spring practice has ended, it’s time to do a wrap of the position groups before they start summer workouts in June,
Today, we will review the wide receivers.
Ahead of time…
It was known ahead of G-Day that the Bulldogs’ most talented wide receiver, George Pickens, would be missing.
It was also known that wideouts Jermaine Burton, Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint, Justin Robinson and Dominick Blaylock could all be missing. Nevertheless, those four guys were dressed out on their respective teams and participated in warmups back on Saturday, April 17. However, none of those four receivers recorded a stat in the scrimmage.
Despite all those injures, the expectations for Georgia’s wideouts were still high going in the final scrimmage of spring practice.
Georgia still had veteran leaders in Kearis Jackson and Demetris Robertson to lean on. Second-year players Arian Smith and Ladd McConkey were also down the depth chart. Also, junior walk-on Jaylen Johnson was expected to play a big role as well. Plus, a few other walk-ons and a couple of freshmen could receive valuable reps since their counterparts were all dealing with nagging injuries.
G-Day takeaways…
The one name that caught the eyes of fans, coaches and media members alike was freshman Adonai Mitchell, who hauled in seven catches for 105 yards with a touchdown.
UGA’s leading all-time receiver, Terrence Edwards, attended a spring practice before G-Day and tweeted this:
Expectations will now be high for Mitchell going into the season, but his G-Day performance makes no promises towards his future. Remember Jonathan Rumph a couple of years ago when he had a big spring game performance? Then, his career at UGA was nothing more than disappointing.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart spoke some kind words about the former three-star following the scrimmage.
"We thought he was a talented player,” Smart said. “He is another one of the guys that we do as good of a job as anybody in the country doing research on players and evaluating players. It's not about what they're ranked, or what the media says about them, or what the recruiting rankings say. We watch the tape. The tape speaks volumes. In the case of Jordan Davis, it spoke volumes. In the case of Adonai Mitchell, it speaks volumes. These guys we evaluate ourselves. We thought he was a really good player. We didn't care what everybody else thought, and he's a good football player. We evaluated him and kept recruiting him”
On the other hand, Jackson and Robertson had great days, too. Both veteran receivers each had four catches for a combined 138 yards with one touchdown apiece. McConkey caught four passes for 28 yards, while Smith didn’t record a stat. Johnson also caught a couple of passes. Another big surprise is that walk-on Steven Peterson caught four passes for 60 yards.
In closing…
It was good to see that Georgia had depth at receiver, but getting those four guys healthy is of the utmost concern.
The great thing about G-Day was seeing that the running backs and tight ends were being mixed into the game. It really was a day where the passing game and pass-catchers excelled. It was just unfortunate that Georgia was missing five receivers, especially because they were all heavily recruited over the past couple of years.
All eyes will be on Mitchell as he is slated to receive some playing time if his production continues.
Check out the previous two spring recaps of Georgia’s position groups:
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